- I get up every morning,
I look in the mirror and I say, hello, darling, look at you,
you made it through another day my dear.
Yes, you did and you look good too.
(upbeat ambient music) Yeah, you woke up like that.
Hi, I'm Sheryl Lee Ralph and I am here to explain it all.
The exact moment that I decided
to become an actress was probably at birth.
My mother always used to tell the story
about how when I was born, I came out laughing
and that was during a time when they used to slap babies
on their behinds to make sure they were alive
and could breathe.
And they said, I came out in full laughter.
So there was no need to check to see if I could breathe.
I think that was probably
the moment I decided I should be an actress.
Hmm.
How did it feel to get the call
to do Dina Jones on Broadway?
There was no call,
it was one day of the longest grueling audition of my life.
Tom Eyen had this idea of a girl group,
and this girl group was going to be, believe it or not,
in the 50s, and they were going to fight racism, sexism
they were going to search for love on their own terms.
I happened to walk into the building behind Loretta Divine,
who was Loretta Divine at the time.
And I remember, my God, I am in the wrong place
because with all of these voices, all of this talent,
they are not going to choose me.
I stayed all day and I went in
and had my song all prepared to sing.
Tom Iron said, no, please sing something from church.
'Cause that's the way he would,
you know, he would say, sing something from church.
I sang Ave Maria.
And there was stunned silence
because I guess they weren't expecting that.
And I was thinking in my head, we're not all Baptists.
So.
And at the end of a long day,
a gentleman came out with a clipboard and notepad
and his pen and he said, I'm going to call some names,
you stay, the rest of you ladies.
Thank you, but today is not your day.
And they said, Loretta Divine, Ramona Brooks
and I was getting up to leave and Sheryl Lee Ralph,
and I was stunned to silence and I took my seat.
And that is how I found out
I had been cast in project number nine
to become "Dream Girls", the original Dina Jones.
Years later, I would ask Tom, I said, why me?
Why did you choose me?
And he said, well, I had the one that sang like this.
I had the one that sang like this.
And then there was you who sang like this.
Soop.
Just the way I wrote it.
And that was that.
A little Ave Maria never hurt anybody.
You know, something,
my greatest role models were my mother and my father,
my grandmother, my grandfather,
they were such wonderful, determined,
loving towards me people
and they made me everything that I am and still becoming.
I was blessed with wonderful parents, wonderful family.
And now I even get to look at my children to be inspired.
I look at them and I'm just like,
(chuckles) oh, I did that.
Look at that.
Oh yeah.
When I need advice, I really turn to my husband.
He is probably one of the smartest, most intelligent,
well read, insightful, kind, loving people that I know.
And he is in many ways, my best friend.
I love my senator,
yes, I always tell people I love politics so much
I sleep with it.
Mm-hmm.
My husband, state Senator Vincent Hughes
from the Keystone State of Pennsylvania.
(upbeat ambient music)
What drew me to Abbot Elementary was its creator, its writer
and are now show star Quinta Brunson
who may be tiny in stature,
but she is so full of intelligence,
kindness, warmth, empathy.
She is a wonderful human being
and she has literally given me the gift
of Mrs. Barbara Howard,
the teacher that you will never forget.
She might not remember you in 10 years
but you will never forget her
and what she meant to your life.
What really got me was the fact that
I really knew this woman, I've met and seen this woman,
I'm related to this woman.
You know, my auntie Carolyn, a lifelong educator
invited the queen to come and see her school
because she believed
that even though her students were challenged,
they should know royalty they should be royal.
And the queen came to the school
and did this whole presentation about tea.
Imagine, now that's the original sips tea.
My dad breaking the color line
as the first black male student, black male teacher
in one of the Connecticut school districts.
I know what it takes to step up and say,
this is my passion, this is my calling
to help mold the minds and hearts of America's children.
And this teacher, Barbara Howard does it with a lot less,
there's not the money, there's not the support,
very often, there's not the respect that teachers deserve
for what they do.
In my mind, these are some of the most
underrated underappreciated people in America
and it really must stop.
(tranquil ambient music)
Through every decade of my career,
I have been given some role that people will never forget.
It is truly amazing and a great gift.
And for me to say my absolute favorite,
that would be difficult, very difficult.
I have an absolute favorite time of my life
but to say the favorite role,
I'd be cheating one or two of them.
Oh, the favorite time of my life
would have had to be doing Dream Girls on Broadway.
It was amazing.
You know, you're 23 years old,
you've worked hard for these things,
it's opening night, you're turning 24 in a week
and amazing things are happening.
Anybody who is anybody is coming to the theater to see you
and your castmates in this groundbreaking musical,
magazines and people are calling from around the world
because for the first time it's like,
they're really focusing
and they can really see black beauty and accept it.
And it was just amazing.
And I was so happy,
so happy to get nominated for a Tony Award,
to win all those Tony Awards except for best musical,
I'll still never understand that.
It was truly one of the most magical
wonderful times in my life and then came the worst.
And that was when aids hit and everything just changed.
(tranquil ambient music)
Everything just changed.
You could be singing and dancing with somebody one night
and the next day, they would be struggling for their life
because this virus that had no name,
it was just called Grid at the time.
And, and Grid just literally blew out
the creative flame on Broadway
like candles on a birthday cake, and it was horrible.
It was horrible the way people stood in judgment
and pointed fingers, talking about those gay people.
It was something to behold as a young woman
how much people could hate on other people
just because of their sexual preference
or who they acknowledge themselves to be in life.
I am forever stunned at standing witness
to what I call such an ugly time in America.
And especially for communities of color,
there had to be what we now call trusted messengers,
there had to be a way to get the
flag of awareness out there
so that people of color could understand
that they too were in danger.
And I said, okay, we've got to do something.
So I set up Diva because I called a lot of divas.
(chuckles)
But I made it mean something more,
divinely inspired, victoriously alive, aware, awesome,
audacious, and if it was Sunday, we would be anointed.
And now some 30 odd years later,
we are still raising awareness,
but we've opened our umbrella,
not just around HIV and aids,
we really, really consider things like institutional racism.
That is a life threatening disease, heart disease,
heart disease and women, heart disease and black women.
We need to get more of the message
to take care of ourselves.
You gotta be diva,
you might not wanna be a diva,
but go on, you gotta be diva
(tranquil ambient music)
For anybody who wants to get in politics, please,
it is a noble job to want to become a public servant.
If you wanna play games
if you just wanna meet fancy people, don't do it,
but if you want to see things change in your community,
in your neighborhood, in your city, in your state,
in your country, run for office, you can run for librarian,
that's an office.
You can be on the school board,
you can run for school superintendent.
There are so many offices out there that need people to run.
Get involved anywhere that you can get involved,
but I encourage you to follow your passion.
If you follow your passion,
you will be able to live in your joy.
No matter what you do, you gotta do the work.
If you run for office,
you gotta meet the people where they are.
You've got to know the people, what are their joys?
What are their struggles?
Then you must serve the people,
it is not about serving yourself.
I'm married to a politician.
I know it is hard work.
And if you think you are gonna get out there
for everybody to tell you, thank you, thank you, thank you.
Forget about it.
There are not a whole lot of thank yous
and you will work 27 hours a day.
Now, after all of that,
if you still wanna get into politics, I'm talking to you,
mm-hmm.
(tranquil ambient music)
how do I navigate confidence?
I love myself, I love me.
I'm in a business that is full of the most
enormous amount of rejection that you can ever contemplate.
I have been too tall, too short, too black
and not black enough all in one day.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
And with that, you have to know
and feel that you are the greatest thing since the internet,
you are the greatest thing since sliced bread,
not from a state of ego
but from a state of confidence
that you belong in this business, you belong here.
If not, get out, because none of this
is for the faint of heart, you have got to believe
and you've got to especially believe in yourself.
Huh, I get up every morning,
I look in the mirror and I say, hello, darling,
look at you, you made it through another day my dear.
Yes you did, and you look good too.
Yeah, you woke up like that.
Oh, I love me.
Hmm.
(tranquil ambient music)
You know something?
I don't know
if there's anything that I haven't done that I really want,
oh no, you know what?
I wanna go visit India.
Yeah, I wanna visit India.
Ooh, Seychelle islands.
Yeah, I wanna visit the Seychelle islands.
Hmm, now that you're making me think about it, I don't know.
We'll see.
Oh, you know what I really wanna do?
I wanna produce a period piece of film, a limited series.
Yeah, that's something I haven't done that I want to do.
I'd like to design the perfect pair of stilettos
that you could wear all day and look fabulous.
Yeah, that's what I'd like to do.
I have that in my head too.
- [Camera Woman] I love that at first you were like nothing.
And then. (laughing)
- Wooh.
Realize that you have a voice,
and if you don't don't use it, you will lose it.
Practice small, make some small sounds, get strong,
'cause you know, most of us with our voice
and we use it well, we use it from our diaphragm.
Get in touch with that muscle.
Start supporting that voice.
Then it's gonna become bigger
and you're gonna become stronger
and you're gonna be able to hold those notes better
and then just let it out.
Sing, speak, talk, but let them hear you.
You've got a voice, use it.